Eurybia conspicua |
Eurybia chlorolepis |
|
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showy aster, showy wood-aster, western showy aster |
mountain aster, mountain wood aster |
|
Habit | Plants 30–100 cm; forming loose clones, short-stipitate-glandular; rhizomes long to short, woody. | Plants 25–80 cm; forming ± dense clones (lacking sterile rosettes); rhizomes elongate, thin, woody with age. |
Stems | 1, erect, seldom branched proximally, stout, proximally glabrate to villous and sparsely glandular (sometimes to base), distally glabrate, strongly glandular. |
1, erect, simple, flexuous, proximally glabrous or villous, more densely villous distally. |
Leaves | cauline, thick, ample, bases clasping, margins ± revolute, sharply serrate (rarely subentire) with ± mucronate teeth, veins prominent, apices acute to acuminate, mucronate, faces scabrous, adaxial veins villous; proximal cauline deciduous by flowering, winged-subpetiolate to sessile, blades oblanceolate to ovate or obovate, smaller than mid, bases tapering; mid usually sessile, sometimes subsessile, obovate or elliptic, (40–)58–140(–180) × (8–)20–50(–80) mm, bases cuneate to mostly rounded-subauriculate; distal (in arrays) sessile, ovate to oblanceolate, lanceolate, or elliptic, (8–)10–60(–90) × 2–28(–40) mm, strongly reduced distally. |
basal and cauline, thin, margins ± sharply serrate, teeth (6–20 per side) mucronulate, strigoso-ciliate, apices acuminate, abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely villous, adaxial sparsely strigose, long-stipitate-glandular (black) along veins; basal and proximal cauline withering by flowering, long-petiolate, blades widely ovate, basal smaller than proximal, bases cordate to subcordate (sinuses narrow); cauline long (10–50 mm) petiolate, wingless or increasingly winged distally, blades ovate, 30–110 × 11–64 mm, bases cordate (proximal) to rounded or rounded-cuneate (distal); distal (arrays) sessile or short (0–11 mm), widely-winged petiolate, blades ovate, 8–38 × 5–23 mm. |
Peduncles | sometimes sparsely hairy, stipitate-glandular; bracts usually 0, sometimes 1–3. |
(subtended by ± reduced distal leaves, longest more than 1.5 cm) villous, eglandular; bracts 0(–1), abruptly smaller than leaves, 2–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm, sometimes subtending heads. |
Involucres | campanulate, 9–12 mm, shorter than pappi. |
campanulate, 6.5–9(–10) mm, shorter than pappi. |
Ray florets | 12–35; corollas blue or violet, (8–)10–15 × 1.2–2 mm. |
(8–)12–16(–20); corollas usually white, sometimes lilac-tinged, (10–)17–18(–20) × 2.6–3.3 mm. |
Disc florets | 48–55; corollas yellow, 9–10 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes narrowly cylindric, slightly longer than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes erect, lanceolate, 0.7–1.3 mm. |
(12–)17–26; corollas yellow, 5.6–6.1 mm, abruptly ampliate, tubes (3–3.6 mm) longer than campanulate throats (0.7–1.1 mm), lobes reflexed, lanceolate, 1.5–2 mm. |
Phyllaries | 34–55 in 4–5 series, midnerves translucent, strongly unequal, membranous, bases indurate, dark green distally, margins densely ciliate, apices spreading or ± squarrose, purple (mucro), acute or acuminate (sometimes mucronate), faces glabrous, densely stipitate-glandular; outer ovate or lanceolate; inner oblong-lanceolate, margins hyaline, often purplish distally, scarious. |
ca. 27 in 4–5 series, ovate or oblong (outer) to oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate (inner), strongly unequal, membranous, bases indurate, pale green zones on less than distal 1/4 (outer, a few sometimes more than 1/2) to 1/6 or none (inner), margins not scarious, entire or slightly erose, often purplish distally (inner), densely villoso-ciliate, apices obtuse to acute, abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely villous, eglandular. |
Heads | 5–50 in open corymbiform arrays. |
3–25+ in open, corymbiform arrays. |
Cypselae | tan, fusiform, ± compressed, 3–4 mm, ribs 8–10, appressed-setose; pappi of cinnamon to pinkish bristles 9–10 mm, about as long as disc corollas. |
tan to brown, fusiform to cylindro-obovoid, slightly compressed, 3.3–3.5 mm, ribs 7–10, stramineous, faces glabrate to sparsely strigillose; pappi of pale cinnamon (fine, barbellulate) bristles 6.2–6.3 mm, equaling to longer than disc florets. |
2n | = ca. 108, ca. 122. |
= 36, 45. |
Eurybia conspicua |
Eurybia chlorolepis |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Open, mesic conifer (spruce-fir, pine, or aspen-conifer) or aspen woods, from foothills to upper montane zone, mesic to dry meadows, forest openings, in somewhat clayey soils, adapted to spring fires | High elevation Appalachian red spruce–Fraser fir and cool mixed forests |
Elevation | 300–2500 m (1000–8200 ft) | 1200–2000 m (3900–6600 ft) |
Distribution |
ID; MT; OR; SD; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK
|
GA; NC; SC; TN; VA |
Discussion | Eurybia conspicua is a western boreo-montane taxon; it ranges from the Interior Mountains and Plateaus to the Rocky Mountains, and spreads onto the northern Great Plains in the aspen parklands-southern boreal forests of Canada, barely into western Manitoba. It is disjunct to the Black Hills (South Dakota) and Cypress Hills (Alberta-Saskatchewan). It stops at the Canadian Shield due to soil preferences (A. J. Breitung 1988). This taxon has the highest chromosome number in the genus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Eurybia chlorolepis is known only from the Blue Ridge physiographic province. It is possibly extirpated at the southern end of its range in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and it is vulnerable elsewhere. It was mapped by W. F. Lamboy (1992), who showed its distinctness from E. divaricata using morphometric and cytologic data. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 20, p. 368. | FNA vol. 20, p. 374. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia | Asteraceae > tribe Astereae > Eurybia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Aster conspicuus | Aster chlorolepis, Aster divaricatus var. chlorolepis |
Name authority | (Lindley) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995) | (E. S. Burgess) G. L. Nesom: Phytologia 77: 259. (1995) |
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